Le Pen loses ground to Macron in French election race: poll

Sauveur,
a member of the French National Front (FN) political party pastes
a poster on a official billboard for French National Front (FN)
political party leader Marine Le Pen as part of the 2017 French
presidential election campaign in AntibesThomson Reuters

PARIS (Reuters) - French centrist Emmanuel Macron is set to come
out on top in the first round of France's presidential election
on Sunday as far right leader Marine Le Pen fell further behind
him in an Elabe poll published on Friday.

However, neither is totally assured a spot in the May 7 runoff
round as both conservative Francois Fillon and hard-left
candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon were seen narrowing Macron and Le
Pen's lead over them.

Provided Macron and Le Pen do make it to the second round, the
former economy minister was projected to win with 65 percent
against 35 percent for Le Pen, the survey for BFM TV and
L'Express magazine showed.

It was conducted on Wednesday and Thursday before a shootout on
Paris' Champs Elysees avenue that left a police officer dead and
was claimed by the Islamic State.

The poll found that Macron was set to win 24 percent of the vote
in the first round and Le Pen would get 21.5 percent, with his
score steady from the last time it was conducted three days
earlier while hers was down 1.5 percentage points.

Fillon, who has slowly clawed back some ground lost after being
hit by a fake jobs scandal, saw his score in the first round rise
half a percentage point to 20 percent.

Melenchon, who would hike taxes on the rich and spend 100 billion
euros ($107 billion) of borrowed money on vast housebuilding and
renewable energy projects, gained 1.5 points to 19.5 percent as
he built further on momentum he has seen after strong
performances in television debates.

If Melenchon makes it to the runoff, he is projected to beat both
Le Pen and Fillon by comfortable margins although he is seen
losing to Macron 41 percent to 59 percent.

The number of people surveyed who expected to definitely turn out
for the first round rose to 71 percent, the highest so far during
the campaign although that is nonetheless low by historical
standards.

(Reporting by Leigh Thomas; Editing by Sandra Maler)

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